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What Belarus's border closure meant for Kyiv
Summary
A retrospective on the border dispute with Belarus and Lithuania's emergency declaration, as reported in the days before 7 July 2021.
What was Minsk's neighbourhood doing in the days leading up to 7 July 2021? Reports from the period describe two border disputes involving Belarus, both traced to the same leader.
On 2 July 2021, Belarus closed its border with Ukraine. President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that arms were being smuggled into the country in an attempt by "outside powers" to overthrow his regime. He said that they had crossed the line and that he could not forgive them.
Ukraine denied the claims. It also said that closing the border would make its people suffer.
On the same day, Lithuania declared a state of emergency. The reason was an increase in the number of undocumented migrants crossing into the country from Belarus. The Government of Lithuania accused Lukashenko of deliberately trying to destabilise the country by encouraging and allowing refugees, mostly Syrians, to cross the border.
Taken together, the reports from 2 July 2021 show Belarus in dispute with a neighbour to the south and another to the north-west, with each government rejecting the position of Minsk.
